Flyers' ascent from abyss continues with win over Penguins

Philadelphia Flyers' Brayden Schenn (10) celebrates with teammates Zac Rinaldo (36), Adam Hall (18) and Jay Rosehill (37) after his second goal of an NHL hockey game in the second period against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013.(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

PITTSBURGH — Conquests at Consol Energy Center are no longer an easy get for the Flyers, but then the team no longer appears to be the easy patsy it was in this season’s first month.

Brayden Schenn scored twice and Ray Emery had plenty of defensive assistance in shutting down high-powered Pittsburgh Wednesday night as the Flyers continued their recovery with a 2-1 victory over the Penguins.

Fresh off a surprising, 5-0 blitz of the Ottawa Senators the night before, the Flyers neither appeared to be weary from their road travels nor worried about facing a kingpin team on the other side of the Metropolitan Division standings.

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What they did get was a rested Penguins club that has been decidedly chilled of late. Scoring bosses Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin hadn’t scored a goal in the previous seven and 10 Pittsburgh games. The chill was evident in a series of missed shots that aided the Flyers’ cause on this night.

That said, the Flyers (7-10-1) can feel rejuvenated with this third straight victory. For them, there are signs of recovery everywhere on the ice. The major system tweaks it took a couple of weeks for replacement coach Craig Berube to incorporate have seemingly taken hold. Claude Giroux doesn’t seem to be playing under a dark cloud any longer. The power play is improving. The defense has been fairly steady. The sacrificial shot-blocking is evident. The goaltending has, for the most part, been outstanding. And that’s from both Steve Mason and Wednesday night’s starter Ray Emery.

Under Berube, who took over three games and three losses into the season, the Flyers have been a .500 team. He has not found a way for them to light up the scoreboard every night, but the back-to-basics way the Flyers neutralized the superior speed of the Penguins with simple yet effective defensive positioning and physical play on every shift was indicative of the changes the Flyers are fully embracing.

It could have started very badly Wednesday night, as it took only 19 seconds for the Penguins to take an apparent 1-0 lead. But a slow decision to let the replay booth bosses in Toronto take a look at the goal resulted in the decision that Penguins winger Beau Fennett had kicked the puck past Emery (30 saves).

The Penguins still had momentum at the start, but the Flyers slowly drained it during the first period. Finally, Wayne Simmonds fought off two checking Penguins in the attack zone and whipped a pass over to Schenn, who one-timed a circle shot that beat Marc-Andre Fleury with 3:58 left in the first period.

The Penguins seemed to shrug that off with ease, however, and began to turn up the heat in the second. But Emery, who had seen Steve Mason shut out the Senators the night before, got better as the game went on. He began piling up the sharp saves, but in the midst of the storm the Flyers began to take penalties.

They finally cracked just in time for Crosby to crack the scoreboard for the first time in too long. He had slipped behind the unseeing Nick Grossmann in the Flyers’ slot, accepted a pass from Malkin and easily beat Emery at 8:29 of the second for a game-tying goal.

Perhaps the Flyers would have crumpled after that a few weeks ago, as they did in a 4-1 home loss to the Penguins Oct. 17.

This team looks different now, adhering to a system that seems to better suit it. And when the Flyers didn’t block the Penguins away from Emery, they hurt themselves with a variety of great scoring chances gone awry with missed shots.

The Flyers then took the lead again, this time by putting two players in front of Fleury on a power play. When Jake Voracek finally got a shot through, first Steve Downie touched the puck, then Schenn helped tuck it home at the 18:40 mark for 2-1.

“Jake walked the line on the power play,” Schenn said. “I think Downie redirected the puck once and then I got a second stick on it. It hit the post and I was fortunate to bang it in again.”

Adopting a road posture against the powerful Pens, the Flyers kicked into defense-only mode in the third period. They needed more brilliant work by Emery and a few more gift misses by the Penguins, but held on for the season’s most significant win.